Al Mukalla: Yemen vice president Khalid Bahah ordered on Wednesday local authorities in the southern city of Aden, the country’s temporary capital, to clamp down on armed groups and Daesh-linked militants responsible for deadly attacks in the strategic city.
Bahah who arrived in Aden on Tuesday held a meeting with the governor of Aden, chief security of the city and the commander of 4th Military Region that focused on discussing security plans to restore stability and security to the city. The official news agency quoted Bahah as ordering senior officials in the city to deal “firmly” with local militias that thrived in the city during Al Houthis’ occupation of the city.
Bahah held another meeting on Tuesday with government officials hours after landing in the city.
Cashing in on months of fierce battles with Iran-backed Al Houthi militants, local armed groups used some parts of the city to train fighters and stage attacks on government facilities.
Yemen’s Minister of interior, General Hussain Arab told Gulf News on January 30 that investigations with some captured members of these groups showed links to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Al Houthis.
Meanwhile, in the Al Houthi-besieged city of Taiz, residents said on Thursday that shells fired by Al Houthi fighters landed at Al Thawra hospital and some densely populated residential districts in the city.
Zakaria Al Shara’abi, a local journalist who tracks down civilian casualties in Taiz, told Gulf News on Thursday that two civilians were killed and two other were injured in the Sena district in western the city when a shell hit their house. Al Houthis have laid a siege to Yemen’s third most important city since early last year to force local resistance fighters to surrender.
Al Houthis failed to weaken the resistance that has recently recaptured the district Al Mesrakh.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed by indiscriminate Al Houthi shelling.
